Aram Shelton's Arrive
Hungry Brain; Sun 18
If the Chicago improvised-music
scene were a series of roaring trains,
passing each other by at uncomfortably
close distances, then Aram
Shelton would be the guy jauntily
riding a bike on the street below. The
Florida-born alto saxophonist, whose
six-year stay in Chicago ended a few
months ago, was an aberration in a
scene devoted to the full-throttled,
Peter Brötzmann–inspired "Chicago"
sax sound that European audiences
crave. He returns from the Bay Area
this weekend to Hungry Brain to celebrate
the release of his fittingly quiet
new CD, Arrive, out on 482 Music.
Remarkably gentle and economical,
like a Lee Konitz solo manifest,
Arrive is pure and deliberate. Some of
the glacially slow movement of composer
Morton Feldman creeps in here
and there, but the energy of the Chicago
players—vibist Jason Adasiewicz,
drummer Tim Daisy and bassist
Jason Roebke—never flags. Shelton's
sax owes much to Ornette Coleman,
whose soulful-sweet alto tone Shelton
has adopted in faithful homage.
After moving here in 1999, Shelton
became a ubiquitous presence, playing
most prominently in the acoustic-jazz
trio Dragons 1976 and the wind instrument–
laptop duo of Grey Ghost, a project
that evidently sparked in Shelton
a deeper interest in electronic sounds.
This fall, he was accepted into the highly
selective graduate program in electronic
music at Oakland, California's
Mills College (which boasts alums such
as performance artist Laurie Anderson,
composer Steve Reich and Deerhoof
leader Greg Saunier). He's got new
wheels on his bike, and long may he
ride.